Unusual Business Ideas That Work

Uncommon Business is a blog about people who make money online selling unusual, strange and sometimes bizarre things or provide curious services. This isn’t “One Hundred And One Ideas For Your Homebased Business” – only real, working businesses with URLs provided, so you can do further investigation on your own. And if you do own an unusual web business, make sure you submit your story to us. SHLD

Friday, October 29, 2010

GameTag Success Story

A stay-at-home mother of four from south-west Sydney could make a fortune out of a simple Nintendo DS accessory she invented out of frustration.

Janene Samuel, 42, invented the $20 Gametag - on sale in EBGames stores around the country from tomorrow - after her young kids kept losing their Nintendo DS games, costing the Bankstown mum close to $100 every time.

No matter how many times she told them to pack them away, the games were constantly scattered across the carpet and they were soon being hoovered up by the vacuum cleaner. All four of Samuel's kids - aged between seven and 13 - have a Nintendo DS and the tiny game cartridges were easy to lose on family outings.

"Some people I've spoken to have lost seven or eight games - that's a weekend away for a family, it's almost a mortgage payment for some people lost in a child's toy. It's a huge expense," she said in a phone interview.

Samuel fashioned her first Gametag prototype out of odds and ends she found in her cupboard around Christmas 2008, but it took her another year after patenting the invention to begin trying to commercialise it. They have only been on sale online for about six weeks.

"Other mothers started saying to me 'oh my god, where did you get that from'? In two weeks I had 12 mothers approach me and ask and I said to my husband, 'I think I'm onto something'," she said.

The deceptively simple product consists of a lanyard attached to a keyring that holds eight tags, which are stuck on to the game cartridges. They always remain connected to the handheld games console, even when playing and swapping between games.

Australia's largest video game retailer, EBGames, believes in the invention and has ordered an initial lot of 1000 units, to be sold in its stores around the country. Samuel said she was in negotiations with other distributors and retailers and also hoped to sell the product internationally by the end of the year.

She is also selling the Gametags on her website for $20, and through her local Bankstown and Fairfield markets.

Samuel estimates she has sold over 450 units just through word of mouth. The only comparable products on the market are containers for Nintendo DS games but Samuel said these don't work as kids never put the games back in the box.

"From a child's point of view they never lose the game, so we never get into that situation of $89 down the drain. You pick up the console and you have all your games," she said.

Samuel, who stopped working after having her first child, said she had sunk several hundred thousand dollars into the venture and had much of her extended family around the kitchen table helping her assemble each Gametag. She has enough stock for about 300,000 units so far.

"We're just a normal joe blow family from the suburbs so the stress of the money outlay has been the only downside to the whole thing," said Samuel.

"I didn't really set out to invent something but I'm quite humbled by the interest from everyone. Even old ladies came up to me and said I don't have a DS but I think it's wonderful."

Monday, October 25, 2010

Recycle Match

Though they're all important parts of sustainability, the 3Rs of waste management — reduce, reuse and recycle — are not equally effective. Rather, they're intended as a hierarchy, with the goal of first reducing waste as much as one can, then reusing as much as possible, and then finally recycling at the end of an item's useful life. Aiming to extend the “reuse” stage for more industrial materials, Houston-based RecycleMatch helps companies with unwanted waste find companies that want to reuse it.

Similar in many ways to BoxCycle — which focuses specifically on cardboard boxes — RecycleMatch seeks “to create an industrial ecosystem in which the use of energy and materials are optimized, waste is minimized, and there is an economically viable role for every product of a manufacturing process,” in the site's own words. Toward that end, companies with items to dispose of begin by listing them for free on the site, which will accept almost anything but equipment, trucks, salvage or other capital assets. The listing company's name is kept confidential, but other RecycleMatch participants can see descriptions and photos of the materials in question along with the quantities available and their location. When another company is interested and a match is made, the owner pays RecycleMatch a fee of USD 10 per ton for a period of up to three years plus a one-time match fee of USD 1,500. The buyer, meanwhile, pays a one-time finder's fee of USD 250. Users can also post “wanted” listings on the site for a one-time fee of USD 500.

More than 3 million pounds of waste materials have already been diverted from landfills, RecycleMatch says, with obvious benefits for the environment, the companies involved and any zero-waste goals being pursued. Currently, however, RecycleMatch serves only US users. One to partner with or emulate in your part of the sustainable world...?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Page 99 Test

It's not uncommon for bookstore patrons to read page 99 of a prospective purchase as a way to decide if they actually want to buy it. Now aiming to help authors benefit from such evaluation earlier in the process, Page 99 Test is bringing that practice online.

Currently gearing up for a launch into private beta, Page 99 Test lets writers upload page 99 of their published or unpublished books to the site. There, readers can read and rate those single-page samples and indicate whether they'd a) turn the page, and b) buy the book based on what they read. Each page stays up for 30 days or 50 reads, whichever comes first. The goal is “to help writers understand if their writing — judged by the reader, who has access to just that one page — was good enough to compel the reader,” the site explains. Sign-up is now open for Page 99 Test's upcoming beta period. Coming later will be a paid service allowing authors to upload full chapters of their books for evaluation, as well as a service to help them connect with agents and editors. Referral fees for published books may also be added, according to the Page 99 Test blog.

As the tablet and eReaders continue to transform the book publishing world — and as the (often self-publishing) crowds have an increasingly prominent voice in determining what gets sold — Page 99 Test could play a role in helping the cream of unpublished books rise to the top. One to watch!